


(Take Your Time) Coming Home

by mayoho



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Gen, Returning to Greendale, Slight AU/Alternate Ending, Troy Barnes's EMOTIONS, season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-18 22:52:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4723295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayoho/pseuds/mayoho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Troy Barnes is back in Colorado; all he has to do now is meet up with his former Study Group without giving into his nerves and puking all over everything.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>There was an interview that Dan Harmon did with Yahoo where he off-handedly mentioned that Abed was furious with Troy for leaving. This is mostly about that, but also about Troy meeting Frankie and Elroy and reacquainting himself with what is left of the study group.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Take Your Time) Coming Home

Troy doesn’t mean for it to be a surprise. He’ll pretend he did, but the truth is this: first he had been convinced something would go wrong and he wouldn’t make it back to Colorado and telling his friends would be tempting fate. Then he had tried to call Annie but he couldn’t because he was so scared--he had sailed around the world with Levar fucking Burton and that had made him different; what if things were different and he didn’t belong with what was left of the Study Group anymore? The old Troy would have hid in the airport bathroom, possibly thrown up a whole bunch and definitely cried, and called his mom and begged for her to pick him up even though they weren’t really on speaking terms. New Troy had grown up (a lot) but apparently not enough to make a phone call when he has the option to work himself into a tizzy in the back of a taxi cab. He has money now, the last time he had seen Abed (and Annie and Jeff and Britta, but mostly Abed) he would have had to take the bus.

Annie and Troy had been emailing as much as they could (the middle of the ocean was not always a good place to be looking for a signal) so he knew his study group (even though they weren’t calling themselves that anymore because Jeff was still teaching and they weren’t taking a class together) met in Study Room F on Tuesday at 2:30 pm. Troy had emailed Abed, even more than he emailed Annie. Annie had told him, unprompted, that Abed read all of them, but he had never emailed him back--except for the one time at the end of November Troy had reminded Abed not to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with Britta and he would be thinking about Abed on December 9th even if he didn’t have Internet access to send another email and Abed had emailed back “i know. merry christmas”. Troy had hid in the corner of his cabin and cried until he physically couldn’t anymore. He wasn’t sure why. He wasn’t sure what Abed had meant. He wasn’t even sure how he felt. 

 

Troy was sitting on the edge of the Table, legs kicking back and forth, before he had really registered he was back on Greendale campus. This was good; any missed opportunity to turn and run was good.

2:20 pm.

At 2:25, Chang strides into the Study Room. He freezes, sort of like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights but mostly like a crazy person, when he sees Troy. His face goes weird--a droopy melty-wax frown--and he skitters through the door keeping his back to the wall, until he can perch on the couch with his hands folded in his lap. Troy does his best to ignore this behavior. "Hi Chang," he waves his hand slightly awkwardly.

Chang licks his lips nervously and nods, eyes huge. Troy looks away.

Luckily, it's not long before Jeff arrives. He's fiddling with his phone and walks right past Troy, not looking up until he's settled in his seat.

"Oh, hello Troy, how was your trip?" Jeff's voice is pleasant in a way that's flippant and thoughtless. It's upsetting for the second it takes Troy to remember that Jeff is as bad at real feelings as he's good at fake ones.

Troy is about to answer when Jeff pulls Troy into a hug that drags him off the end of the table. It only lasts a second, but it's so tight it squeezes the air out of his lungs. Jeff gives him a manly pat on the back and an inscrutable look as he pulls away, before he sits back down and resumes whatever it is he's always doing on his phone.

An older black gentleman had slipped into the room at some point during his exchange with Jeff. He raises an eyebrow at Troy. Troy doesn't know him well enough to be certain, but the way his mouth quirks slightly makes him think he means "White people and their father issues". 

He half rises from his seat (Shirley's seat) and extends his hand across the Table. "Elroy. I assume you're Troy, it’s a pleasure." Elroy's voice is deep, calm, and unbelievably self assured; Troy is instantly a little bit jealous.

"Yup, that's me, Troy!" Troy points at himself. Then he clears his throat--he's a filthy rich adult now, he can do better than that. "Nice to meet you Elroy." Troy definitely does not use the Troy and Abed Being Normal voice.

Elroy gives him a look and Troy scuffs his toe against the carpet.

A sort of hot-in-a-cold-way looking woman strides in before Troy can properly berate himself for sounding like an idiot. 

"Francesca Dart," she says briskly, somehow managing to shake Troy's hand without waiting for him to extend it.

Troy has to clear his throat again; he's forgotten how weird Greendalians are. "Troy Barnes."

Francesca's face changes, but Troy doesn't get a chance to see it as Britta practically side tackles him with an over-enthusiastic hug. After nearly a minute of stumbling, Troy spins her around with equal enthusiasm. They had kept in touch sporadically. Britta's weirdness seemed to be amplified by distance; he hadn't realized how much he missed her. He stops spinning her when he sees Abed and Annie in the hallway through the glass windows. He knows the exact moment Abed notices him because Abed's body goes painfully still--the kind of still that makes Troy think Abed would stand there forever if the rest of the world let him. It's only a second before Annie grabs his wrist and gently tugs him forward into the Study Room.

Troy hugs Annie as soon as she's close enough and he can feel her smile against his neck, and her boobs squished against her chest. When she pulls back, hands still on his shoulders, he can see the way her smile lights up her face and that's even better. Then she's off: chastising Troy for not telling her he was coming, she would have organized a surprise party, with a banner, and having a disturbingly--but not unexpectedly--excited conversation with Frankie (apparently that's what people call the hot-in-a-cold-way woman, not Francesca) to organize last minute snacks.

Abed is standing a few steps through the doorway where Annie has stopped pulling him along. He's not perfectly still; he's moving his head to catalogue everyone in the room, but his feet stay rooted in place.

"Hi Abed," Troy's voice sounds weird in his own ears, distant and tense at the same time.

Abed nods. He's looking at Chang who has taken Troy's old seat at the Table to have an animated conversation with a bemused looking Elroy. Since Abed is looking, Troy wonders what he's missed of Chang's character arc. Abed glances at Jeff before shifting the full force of his gaze to Annie and Frankie. Frankie keeps glancing at Troy--he doesn't know why. Troy takes a deep breath. Abed's not ignoring Troy, but he's also not not ignoring Troy. It feels like Abed is mad at him; everything is weird and wrong and Troy doesn't know if he can make it right.

 

Everything moves in a blur as Britta and Jeff try to catch him up on the last year. He's only half listening; they're spending more time arguing and sniping at each other than telling him anything interesting. Some things, at least, don't changed. They've moved on to something about a school wide email hack, which is somehow related to a bet on Frankie's sexual orientation, when the woman in question walks over. She hands him a bowl of pretzels (Annie hadn't been kidding about finding snacks).

"Have some pretzels." She's looking at him with a disconcerting level of intensity. Jeff and Britta have stopped talking and are looking at him as well.

"Have you had a chance to practice your steel drums? I am given to believe you have been on a boat, I wouldn't expect steel drums to travel very well."

Troy looks at Frankie, pretty certain the confusion is written plain as day across his face. The awkward silence is interrupted by Jeff cackling like a deranged hyena. Troy decides he doesn't want anything to do with whatever this is, and slips away to stand next to Annie as she fusses with the snacks she acquired from somewhere mysterious.

She smiles and he leans against her shoulder for a second. "Where's Abed?" Troy hadn't noticed him leave, but Abed is uncannily stealthy when he puts his mind to it, so this was more disappointing than confusing or surprising. Annie shrugs in response. It makes Troy sort of angry, but it's probably unfair to Annie to stay mad, especially if he can't really explain what he’s feeling. He wants Annie to tell him what's going on, but he doesn't know how to ask. Or, mostly he doesn't want to risk that Annie will look at him with the weird not quite sympathetic face she sometimes makes and tell him he has to figure it out himself.

Troy frowns and heads out of the Study Room. Hopefully Abed still goes to the same places when he wants to be alone.

 

“Is this a test?”

Troy finds Abed on the roof (only the third place he had checked) but Abed isn’t looking at him, is looking out over Greendale instead. “Come on, I need you to give me something to work with,” Troy doesn’t bother hiding that he’s upset, he doesn’t think Abed would appreciate that. 

“It wasn’t supposed to be a test.”

“Ok. So you’re hiding up here for your own reasons, but you are grading me. Do I pass?” 

“It wasn’t supposed to be a test.” Abed is looking at Troy now, and his eyes are so wide its almost funny, but it’s also really, really not. It’s bad that Abed is clearly freaked out, but it’s reassuring that Troy can still tell, still remembers the slant of Abed’s mouth and the way his expression goes blank instead of vacant when he’s being deliberately difficult and how it looks nothing like how he looks right now. Troy wonders it Jeff ever really learned to tell the difference and prays to the God he’s pretty sure he hasn’t believed in properly since before he was a teenager that Annie did, because Troy left. Troy left Abed, and it’s not fair that Abed is so clearly holding it against him, but it’s also not fair that Troy left. Because of course Abed doesn’t get it. Troy never explained and he’s still not sure he can. Troy hadn’t wanted to go. He had needed to. 

“Well I guess let me know when you figure out how you’re grading me or whatever?” Troy shrugs, going for nonchalant and definitely failing miserably. Abed is still watching him, wide eyed and so still. 

“Abed. Can I, I want to--” Troy holds his arms out. He’s not sure why he can’t say ‘I want to hug you, can I, please?’ or just do it, but it turns out not to matter. Abed is hugging Troy and it’s different because Troy doesn’t remember Abed ever initiating a hug, but it’s the first thing that’s good different instead of scary or awkward different. Abed is hugging Troy so tightly he can barely breath and pressing his fingers into Troy’s back so hard it sort of hurts, but Troy hugs Abed back and wants to never let go. Abed still smells like the same brand of dryer sheets and Old Spice deodorant he’s always used. The knowledge makes the tight knot that’s been stuck in his chest since he landed in Colorado untangle and Troy is suddenly fighting back relieved tears. He knows Abed can hear the sniffles but he doesn’t let go.

Troy knows Abed hasn’t forgiven him, but he knows, more surely than he knows the filters in the HVAC system need to be changed, that Abed will.

**Author's Note:**

> I had written the single catastrophe of a sentence about Abed not responding to Troy's emails at the very beginning of season 6, then Dan Harmon said a thing and I wrote the first few paragraphs and the very last few paragraphs, and then I forgot about it for a while and wrote some other things. Then the rest of it sort of happened all at once. 
> 
>  
> 
> Also, is anyone interested in beta reading 3,500 words of Abed POV fic? (It's missing a few connecting scenes, but it's mostly finished.) My internet usage has always involved indulging my slightly anti-social tendencies so I'm not quite sure how people generally go about finding those and I've never felt like I needed one before. If you're interested, either leave a comment or send me an email at littlestsnicket@gmail.com.
> 
> As always, constructive criticism welcome.


End file.
